


Moment of Impact

by orphan_account



Category: One Tree Hill
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-08 20:22:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8859721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Just a OTH one shot. Prominent Naley, but also Peyton and Brooke and Lucas.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Read this however floats your boat, but i sorta see this as Lucas narrating. 
> 
> anyway, read and review please! 
> 
> My catchphrase: If you like it enough to leave kudos, please comment to tell me why. 
> 
> My alternate catchphrase: If you don't like it, tell me why, but do it nicely. 
> 
> thanks guys :)

Moment of Impact

 

            What people often fail to realize is that there is no _moment_ of impact – there’s a _beginning._ There are a hundred people who are going to be affected a thousand ways, like a domino effect that never stops. A moment implies a second. Impact never stops that quickly.

            To put that philosophical crap into perspective, picture a boy and a girl named Nathan and Haley. Haley is best friends with Nathan’s half-brother/nemesis, Nathan is dating the girl Haley’s best friend is into, and the girl Nathan is dating is best friends with a girl who is into Haley’s best friend/Nathan’s half-brother-nemesis. There’s a lot of different ways that this comfortable set up can turn into a ripple effect of drama. In this case, it starts when Nathan decides to get close to Haley to piss off his half-brother/nemesis/Haley’s best friend.

            As this whole thing progresses, try to pinpoint the _moment_ of impact. A single second that changed everything, leaving the rest as mere aftermath.

            Everything is in perspective now, save the long description of why Nathan and Haley’s best friend (Lucas, from now on) are only halfway brothers. Basically, they have the same oppressive and manipulative father who has serious emotional imbalance, but he left Lucas’ mom for college basketball, and while there he met Nathan’s mom, who he chose over Lucas’ mom even though they were both pregnant, and the result was a lasting ignoring-fest/feud between their father (Dan) and their father’s brother (Keith, who is also Lucas’ stand-in father figure), which sort of carried over to Nathan and Lucas. Oh, and all of these guys who aren’t getting along share the last name Scott because they’re all related (you probably figured that out).

            The whole thing is like a rock on the edge of a cliff, one that can be pushed off the edge by a single gust of wind. That gust of wind is Nathan’s girlfriend (Peyton) breaking up with him, leaving the entire “love rectangle plus one” (an accurate description that can be credited to Peyton’s best friend who’s into Lucas, a.k.a. Brooke) very single and somewhat vulnerable.

            Now, don’t mistake the gust of wind for the moment of impact – there were way too many factors involved in said gust to narrow it down to one second that changed everything.

            Nathan is the first to take advantage of the situation. In fact, even before the breakup, he manages to win over a little tiny piece of Haley by convincing her to tutor him under the guise that it’s all for Lucas, her best friend in the world who is way better than Nathan (but secretly, she thinks he’s hot and she actually really wants to see him succeed because of her tutoring and Lucas is honestly the only reason she _wouldn’t_ ).

            Haley starts to really like Nathan, beyond the scope of their very scholastic relationship, and a few more dominos tip over (Lucas has a hard time with the whole “my best friend is getting kinda close with my half-brother who I pretty much hate” thing, Peyton and Nathan don’t go through with their routine make-up/make-out post-breakup session because they’re both eyeing different people, etc.). But she’s not sure if he likes her because he’s a player who probably isn’t terribly genuine, so she keeps her distance.

            Lucas and Peyton sort of make friends, but she’s still hyper-closed off and he’s still overcoming his inherent pushover instincts (the ones that make him take everyone’s crap with little to no resistance).

            Brooke somehow stays in the game even though neither Scott (half) brother is interested in her at the moment, but kudos to her for holding out in a situation this biologically, logically, and emotionally confusing.

            Located a singular, sudden moment of impact yet? Probably not.

            Peyton and Lucas take a step forward, then two steps back. Something about Lucas not wanting to have meaningless sex while Peyton doesn’t want to have a meaningful relationship. It doesn’t stop him from saving her when she gets in over her head at a college party, but they’re still back to a semi-awkward friendship because Tree Hill is, at least in the relationship department, extremely anti-progressive.

            Meanwhile, Nathan kisses Haley and they defy the odds by becoming the perfect couple, which shocks literally everyone (the player/jock/jerk in a committed relationship with tutor girl?). But not even the perfect couple is perfect, especially when one of the members of said couple has a dysfunctional marriage and a pressuring father to come home to every night. But despite obstacles like abstinence and drugs and general familial tension, they still hold the perfect couple award.

            That didn’t happen in a split second, or even a whole second. A self-centered jock doesn’t turn into a decent guy willing to date a girl who won’t have sex until she’s married in a single moment of inward revelation. And a mildly eccentric tutor with higher character standards than aesthetics standards doesn’t let herself fall for self-centered jocks turned decent just because they have potential unless that jock is really, really worth it. Figuring that crap out takes time.

            Brooke’s persistence pays off when Lucas _finally_ flirts back, he gives her a book and she gives him a night of her kind of fun. More dominos get knocked over, like Peyton and Lucas’ chemistry, Brooke and Peyton’s friendship, Lucas’ tattoo-free status, etc.

            Fast forward. The ripple effect produced by the ill-timed Brook/Lucas breakup ends two friendships. Nathan and Haley are still king and queen of high school love (or any love, for that matter). Some people can get over their differences and disagreements (see Nathan and Haley), others can’t (see Peyton, Brooke, and whoever is caught in the crossfire of their semi-frequent battles – “whoever” is usually lanky, blond, and named Lucas Scott). At what moment did it all start? When Lucas broke it off with Brooke, or seventeen years ago when Dan chose Nathan’s mom (Deb) over Lucas’ mom (Karen)?

            Nathan and Haley get married, ruining his relationship with his parents (but that probably started back at his emancipation… or maybe when his mom was finally honest about the fact that she left him, at one point… who knows?). But they’re happy together, so the odds against them don’t matter.

            Meet Chris Keller, aspiring musician who spends his days spewing brutally honest and brutally worded opinions while doing inventory in a small town record store. Also known as, the first wedge ever to successfully be driven between the beloved couple affectionately known as Naley (credit for this name probably belongs to Brooke). Dreams clash. People helping Haley achieve her dreams (Chris) and Nathan clash. Nathan and Haley clash. Haley goes on tour with Chris (which is unfortunately not her husband’s name). Did it start when Haley first played a note on a piano, or when Chris convinced her that those notes could actually take her somewhere?

            Take a step back and look at the mess. Nathan doesn’t have Haley. Haley doesn’t have Nathan. Lucas doesn’t have Brooke. Brooke doesn’t have Lucas. Peyton doesn’t have Lucas. Lucas doesn’t have Peyton. Nathan’s going around burning bridges because he can’t stand how broken his heart is. Haley is torn between two dreams, the love of a lifetime or the opportunity of a lifetime. Nobody is happy.

            There’s a whole lot more to the big picture, but this is just a snapshot.

            Where did it all start? What could’ve been done differently to make it turn out differently for everyone? How many individual timelines have to change, and how drastically do they have to change, so that everyone’s can have a happy ending?

            To know that, you’d have to find a singular moment of impact. The one second where everything clicked right into place and determined everything else.

            You can’t.


End file.
